Does Altered Fish Vision Exhibit Evolution? | The Institute for Creation Research

Does Altered Fish Vision Exhibit Evolution?

Biologists recently analyzed special proteins in fish eyes that capture light photons, making vision possible. By comparing the sequences of a critical protein from different fish, they identified a particular alteration that likely occurred somewhere along the line of this fish’s ancestry. The altered protein resulted in the fish seeing visible light instead of ultraviolet rays, or UV. How relevant to big-picture evolution is this find?

Emory University evolutionary biologist Shozo Yokoyama admitted in a university press release, “Evolutionary biology is filled with arguments that are misleading, at best….To make a strong case for the mechanisms of natural selection, you have to connect changes in specific molecules with changes in phenotypes, and then you have to connect these changes to the living environment.”1 Yokoyama was lead researcher in the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which attempted to determine specific details on what are interpreted as evolutionary changes in the vision system of vertebrate eyes.

Yokoyama and his colleagues found that the difference between fish that see UV and those that see in violet―a lower intensity wavelength―was due to the removal of a particular amino acid from the 86th position in the protein. This single amino acid deletion caused the protein’s shape to alter very slightly. That subtle adjustment resulted in the molecule being “tuned” to receive violet light instead of UV.

The report also included sequence comparisons with the same critical eye protein in land mammals. The researchers reported, “In the absence of UV light, UV vision becomes unnecessary and is expected to disappear, as exemplified by coelacanth and many nocturnal mammals.”2 Indeed, in the absence of any light, any vision becomes unnecessary and is expected to disappear, as has occurred in the Texas Blind Salamander living in the San Marcos Pool.

The expectation of a loss of function follows from the creation model, which holds that creatures were originally designed with the highest levels of genetic organization and have been gradually losing information since.3

Big-picture evolution, in stark contrast, must explain how all of the parts required for vision entered the world naturally.4 This fish eye research, an endeavor to investigate evolutionary development, merely highlighted a loss of function due to the deletion of a small part of a protein. As such, it has nothing to do with wholesale gain of the type of new genetic information necessary to build a fish from a single-celled ancestor, as the evolutionary tale requires.

Thus, the changes that occurred in these fish eyes point to the corruption that entered the world with humanity’s rebellion against God, resulting in the situation observed today in which “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”5

References

  1. Fish Vision Discovery Makes Waves in Natural Selection. Emory University press release, October 16, 2009.
  2. Tada, T., A. Altun and S.Yokoyama. 2009. Evolutionary replacement of UV vision by violet vision in fish. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106 (41): 17457.
  3. Maddox, B. 2007. Mutations: The Raw Material for Evolution? Acts & Facts. 36: 9.
  4. Thomas, B. Retinal Coordination: Picture Perfect Presentation of Design. ICR News. Posted on icr.org April 15, 2009, accessed October 20, 2009.
  5. Romans 8:22.

Image Credit: NOAA

* Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on October 27, 2009.

The Latest
NEWS
Distant Galaxies Continue to Challenge the Big Bang
Recently, a team of scientists released data collected from 800,000 galaxies at different distances from Earth, all lying within the same narrow slice...

NEWS
Did Teeth First Evolve as Sensory Tissue?
One of the mysteries of evolution (there are so many) is the origin of teeth. The past few years have witnessed a remarkable flurry of research...

NEWS
''The Flood of Death'': A Mass Dino Grave in Canada
Paleontologists in Alberta, Canada, have recently unearthed “a mass grave on a monumental scale.”1 The BBC story speaks of Thousands...

CREATION PODCAST
The 100th Episode of The Creation Podcast! | Let's Talk About...
What role do in-person events play for a creation science ministry? How can you host an event through ICR? Are these events still important...

NEWS
Bone, Skin, Claw Lasted…150 Million Years?
Experts and educators have long assumed Archaeopteryx represents a transition from theropod dinosaurs to modern birds. All of this speculation depends...

NEWS
How Did Earth Get Its Water?
Earth’s oceans contain 321 million cubic miles (1.335 billion cubic kilometers) of water. The moon causes ebb and flow of tides twice in a 24-hour...

NEWS
New Fossil Discovery Upends Animal Evolution...Again
Reptiles belong to a group of animals called amniotes that also include birds and mammals. A new Australian fossil discovery of a clawed amniote demonstrates...

NEWS
100% Cicada Fossil
Cicadas are an unusual-looking insect belonging to the order Hemiptera (the true bugs, including bed bugs and aphids). If you live in the eastern United...

CREATION PODCAST
Earth’s Origins: Science, Theology, and a New Geology Textbook...
Since the late eighteenth century, most scientists have argued for a uniformitarian view of Earth’s history. They claim the world...

NEWS
June 2025 ICR Wallpaper
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from...